GRAND DECLINES - visits to ruined mansions 1994 - 2014

Synopsis:
Paul White first began to visit and document the ruined mansions in Wales after a friend took him to Aberglasney Mansion in 1994. Since then he has covered many miles, photographed many houses and also made extensive notes. Here is a collection of his photographs, notes made and locations (including ordnance survey grid references) of all the mansions he visited since 1994 through to the present day. As well as essays and detailed accounts of the visits, there are also included approximately 250 black and white photographs.
Approximately 44,000 words.

A new eBook with essays, grid references and information on the mansions photographed.
Please click here:

This is an eBook only publication of Paul White’s abstract photography he freely admits being inspired and in response to Aaron Siskind’s work. He first came across Siskind’s work whilst scouring the books shelves of the library where he worked and then a little later he found a perfect copy of Carl Chiarenza’s monograph on Siskind ‘Pleasures and Terrors’ in a small bookshop at Hay-on-Wye.

This was in 1995, when White was 24 years of age. He was moved by Siskind’s photographs and words and immediately went out and began to set his large format camera up in various cities and towns, emulating Siskind’s style and personal expression.

White has now produced a strong portfolio of abstract works and this volume shows a varied study and cross-section of his work, as well as the reasons why he chose such a narrow form of self expression.

Paul White is well known for his black and white images of ruined farmhouses and mansions throughout Wales and has published two photographic books: ‘Ancestral Houses: The Lost Mansions of Wales’ (with poetry/prose by Damian Walford-Davies and Sian Melangell Davies) and ‘Poets Graves’ (with Damian Walford-Davies and Mererid Hopwood) both published by Gomer Press.

Comments

By Jason Stevens: You photos are great but you publicise vulnerable buildings for profit. You should not give grid references for empty buildings. You may get prosecuted by the owners if they get torched or vandalised.

By Paul White: O/S grid references all available online on Cadw's 'Coflein' website - no profit is made by me - I am in effect literally tens of thousands of pounds worse off because of this 'hobby'!

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